Proposing on your trip? Keep that ring with you!

May 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Proposing on your trip? Keep that ring with you!If you plan to propose on your trip, good for you – and good luck to you! But, please keep the ring with you. All baggage protection – even that offered by the airline – comes with limits. If you store the ring in your bag and check that bag, you could be in trouble if the bag is lost or stolen.

You can read more about what the airlines owe you when your luggage is lost, but the short story is that they won’t cover the loss of a particular item if that item is worth more than  ($150) and it must be accompanied by the original receipt. Travel insurance coverage for individual items is higher, but it’s limited as well – between $600 and $2,000 depending on the policy limits. See the specific limits per plan here.

Your best bet, when traveling with a valuable item is to keep the item with you – on your person or in your carry-on. This can include valuable personal documents or papers, jewelry, and more. You can read more about safe travel tips recommended by the State Department, but the key is to keep your valuables with you and protect your bag at all times.

Is Travel Insurance Worth the Cost?

May 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Is Travel Insurance Worth the Cost?We know that travel is expensive and you may not want to pay the extra financial cost for travel insurance. You may even believe that it’s not necessary because your credit card will cover you.

We hear this all the time. So, is travel insurance really worth the cost?

First, let’s consider the fact that any kind of insurance is designed to protect people from large, unexpected losses like having your house burn down or having a family breadwinner die before the kids are off to college and the mortgage is paid.

Then, consider the fact that the cost of health care is rising globally, and a simple accident – say you step off the curb while looking the other direction in Aruba – could cost you thousands of dollars.  If you are traveling outside the borders of your home country – even to Canada or Mexico, your regular health insurance plan will not provide coverage (even if you have Medicaid). Because the price of travel insurance is relatively low compared to the potential cost if you become ill or are injured while traveling, travel insurance is definitely worth the extra cost.

If you are traveling in a country where the medical care is not up to U.S. standards, are you willing to risk it, or would you rather be evacuated to a medical facility you trust? If you want to be evacuated, how are you ever going to pay those high costs? Travel insurance coverage for evacuations comes with an assistance services hotline backed by people who can make the travel arrangements and handle the payment if you have to be evacuated from your destination. Even worse, what if you or your spouse dies on vacation? How are you going to pay the high costs to transport their body back home? Again, travel insurance protections are available for these situations.

If you’re traveling with kids and you have to check a little more baggage than normal – a stroller, portable crib, diapers for example – then travel insurance can pay for unexpected costs if your baggage goes astray. Most travel insurance plans even pay $100 per day for delays that last longer than six hours, which you can use on food or accommodation. Sleeping in the airport was bad enough when you were younger, but how hard would it be with a toddler at your side? Even better, if your baggage is irretrievably lost and you are headed for a Disney cruise without clothing or essentials, travel insurance will provide reimbursement for not only replacement clothing and essentials, but also a new bag to get it back home.

Of course, this is just a few of the reasons travel insurance is worth the cost. See our travel insurance buying guides for more information about the risks of travel and the coverage you should have with you.

U.S. Department of Transportation Expands Airline Passenger Protections

May 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Airline Consumer Protections The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) recently announced an updated set of airline passenger regulations that will go into effect in August of 2011. The intent of these rules is to build out the few passenger protections established in December of 2009.

  1. Airlines will now be required to refund baggage fees if the bag is lost. This seemed like a no-brainer to us, but apparently it wasn’t required before.
  2. Airlines will now be required to prominently disclose all potential fees, including fees for baggage, meals, cancelling or changing reservations, and upgraded seating. What’s changed? The airlines were previously not required to include government taxes and fees in their fare quotes.
  3. Airline compensation to passengers who are bumped off oversold flights is now increased. See what the airlines owe you now. What’s changed? Bumped passengers who are subjected to short delays (arriving within 1-2 hours of their original arrival for domestic flights and 1-4 hours for international flights) are entitled to double the price of their tickets up to $650; passengers subjected to longer delays will receive reimbursement of four times the price of their tickets up to $1,300. Inflationary adjustments every two years are also built into the rules.
  4. Non U.S. airlines are required to limit lengthy tarmac delays. The ruling established a hard four-hour time limit on tarmac delays for international flights of U.S. and foreign airlines (with some exceptions for safety, security or air traffic control reasons). What’s changed? The tarmac ruling previously applied only to U.S. carriers. It’s now expanded to foreign airlines operating in the U.S.

A cautionary tale about credit cards and wallets

May 9, 2011 By Leave a Comment

A cautionary tale of credit cards and walletsThis story recently caught our eye: A Cheap Broad’s Travel Tips: A Cautionary Tale by Barbara Rice. It describes a woman’s struggle getting her credit card accounts secured after being robbed of her wallet on the Eiffel Tower.

Tourists are easy marks for thieves who have lots of practice and know the area. They’re not just scouting for cash either – that’s easy. The market for stolen credit card numbers is big business in the age of the Internet. Stolen credit card numbers are quickly sold to other countries and thousands in purchases can be piled up over the Internet in mere seconds – often before the traveler even knows it’s missing.

The above-mentioned article describes how best to be prepared if and when a thief strikes, and this is valuable travel information. Some of the tips are familiar to most travelers. Specifically:

  • don’t wear expensive jewelry when traveling
  • keep wallets in deep pockets, not in shallow pants pockets
  • even better, keep your wallet in a zippered compartment and keep the zipper zipped
  • when you withdraw money from an ATM, block the view of your transaction with your body or have your traveling companion stand with you to watch for those who may be taking too much interest in what you’re doing

Additionally, travelers should have the 24-hour global assistance numbers of their credit card and bank card accounts. Each major credit card company and bank has a hot-line if you have to call from outside the U.S., and if you also have your account numbers, they can put a lock on those accounts and often re-issue new cards and have them sent to you.

In short, we found the list of tips at the end of this particular article useful. Of course, our recent post on Tips for Safe Summer Travel mentions some of the same tips, but you can never be too careful about your wallet at home or on the road. In addition to being smart and careful while you travel, some travel insurance plans provide identity theft services, which can help when your identity has been stolen, and passport/credit card services for replacement documents and emergency cash.

Will Travel Insurance provide coverage for Home Rentals?

April 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Rent a home on your next vacationMany travelers prefer to stay in a home rather than a hotel and it has a number of advantages, including the reduced costs of cooking at home, multiple bedrooms in a single area,  a central place for larger groups to meet, and more. One of the most popular reasons for renting a home rather than a hotel is the ease of ‘living like a local’.

This type of travel comes in a couple of forms:

  • Renting someone’s second or vacation home
  • Home swapping or home exchange

Travel insurance plans provide coverage for the risks associated with destinations, including hotels, inns, and even homes and apartments. The key for the traveler is providing assurance to the travel insurance company that there is a rental agreement. With a hotel reservation, you have a printed document (usually sent to you via e-mail) that proves you made and paid for the reservation. It’s the same with any home or apartment reservation.

Coverage (depending on the travel insurance plan) can include pre-trip cancellation in the event the rented property is destroyed through natural disaster, for example. Coverage may also provided benefits for post-departure trip interruptions in the event you have to evacuate the rented property ahead of a natural disaster or following a natural disaster event.

Tips for safe home or apartment rental

  1. Ensure there is a rental agreement – this is your agreement with the rental agency or property owner, and you should review the terms and conditions carefully so you understand your rights and responsibilities.
  2. Ensure there is a local contact – this is a person who is nearby who can answer questions about maintenance issues, how to operate appliances, and help if you get locked out of the property.
  3. Evaluate past reviews – if the property has been rented before, review the past guest comments for clues about the property and how renters were treated.
  4. Ensure there is a secure reservation system – the property owner should have a way to make standardized, secure reservations over the Internet with a major credit card. You should expect to pay a security deposit, but do not wire money or pay with cash or check.

A number of vacation rental sites, like Vacation Rental By Owner and Home Away, are available to help travelers find suitable homes, flats, and apartments in their desired destination. Most properties are professionally managed and the sites have secure methods to make reservations and payments.

Travel Insurance saved this couple hours of wasted time and $400

April 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Travel insurance saved this couple in Punta CanaA recent post on the TripAdvisor Punta Cana forum, ‘Trip Insurance saved us last week!‘, points out where travel insurance can make a big difference.

The short version of their story is that their flight back home from a Punta Cana resort was delayed over 4 hours, causing them to miss their connection even if the flight left at the new departure time. They called their travel agent who worked with the travel insurance assistance services and were quickly re-booked on the same flight the next day. The trip insurance covered travel delays up to $200 per person, per night, nearly covering the entire cost of an extra day basking in paradise.

For the Chicago traveler, the trip insurance was well worth the extra money.

Luckily, this couple had an extra day to spare before they had to return to their lives at home. They later found that their original flight was delayed even further and then the flight was canceled entirely, so all those who went to the airport wasted a day waiting and were still out of luck.

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